Since the work of Natorp, Philippson, and Diels, the pseudonymous Gnomologium Democratis has been regarded as an excerpt from one or more ethical writings of Democritus of Abdera (= VS II 68 B 35-115). Nevertheless, both the linguistic form of the sayings and the compilation’s structure reveal it as a secondary literary product and suggest an early imperial date of origin. The selection of themes and the ‘idealistic’ tendency of the Gnomologium indicate a neo-Pythagorean-influenced context.